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The Conservative Government has recently made a ‘national crusade’ to get homes built, describing our national housing shortage as ‘the one big piece of unfinished business in our economy’. With such unprecedented levels of new housing required across the UK, we are presented with a unique opportunity to truly influence how future communities are planned.

Transport inputs are crucial in formulating a successful, integrated masterplan. Each site will face different challenges and will have its own particular issues. As such, there is no single panacea to delivering a comprehensive transport strategy.

To ensure that development meets the core National Planning Policy Framework tests of ‘promoting sustainable transport’, mode advise considering the following key transportation philosophy:

higher densities should be considered and must include“every day” facilities such as local shops, post office, nurseries, schools, restaurants and open recreational space. All of which should be easily accessible by public transport;

residential and viable employment should be co-located wherever possible to reduce the need to travel long distances;

development should be located with walking distance of existing (or new) public transport hubs and facilities;

development should be placed near to or within existing urban areas rather than new “freestanding” development. Ideally, it should not be in close proximity to the strategic road network (motorways);

parking associated with retail, employment and at transport hubs should be constrained to encourage sustainable modes of travel;

budgets should be focussed on public transport rather than increasing capacity to the existing highway network; and

travel plans should be implemented at the earliest stages of the development to ensure that sustainable modes are available from initial occupancy.

mode transport planning have successfully helped develop a number of key masterplanning projects over recent years; working closely with various developers, architects and Environmental Impact Assessors, and have actively engaged with key stakeholders to ensure the successfully delivery of a number of developments and masterplans.